Amazon Brand Registry: Improvements and Shortcomings

The following is an excerpt from an article written by Etail’s CEO Michael Anderson that was published by Business.com.

Whether you’re a top name brand, or a small business owner, the Amazon marketplace can be both a blessing and a curse.

On one hand, Amazon has made it even easier for merchants to reach hundreds of millions of new customers around the world. Over 300,000 small and mid-sized businesses in the U.S. started selling on Amazon in 2017. Half of all items Amazon customers purchased last year were sold by SMBs.

On the other hand, since Amazon’s barrier to entry is low and shipment inspections are limited, it opens the door for counterfeiters to sell knock-off products. Fake products are one of Amazon’s biggest problems. These products negatively affect both buyers and legitimate merchants. In fact, many brands refuse to do business with Amazon because of widespread counterfeiting on their marketplace.

To combat the issue, a new version of Amazon Brand Registry was released last year. It is a revamped program that makes it faster and easier for brand owners and manufacturers to identify and stop counterfeiters.